Roambee helped solve key logistics challenges around global COVID-19 vaccine distribution. The startup’s latest financing will be used for its global expansion into Asia.
By Ka Wing Li
Reefknot Investments has made a strategic investment in Roambee, a Silicon Valley-headquartered, on-demand supply chain visibility company, the investment firm announced in a press release yesterday. Reefknot’s strategic financing was part of Roambee’s Series B1 fundraise, led by Anchor Group, which raised in excess of US$18 million.
The exact amount of Reefknot’s strategic investment in Roambee is undisclosed at the moment, but the press statement says the funding is intended for further technology development and expansion into new markets, including Asia. The company is planning a Series C fundraise with a planned kick-off in Q2 2021.
Roambee is a supply chain visibility company which provides AI-enabled prescriptive insights through sensor-driven, real-time logistics monitoring. It is headquartered in Silicon Valley, with regional offices in Mexico, Brazil, the U.K., Germany, the U.A.E., India, and Indonesia.
The startup’s cloud platform uses a range of different sensors, Internet of Things (IoT) hardware, and connectivity options that allow the startup to globally monitor cargo being transported by air, land, or sea. In addition, it offers Robotic Process Automation (RPA) solutions to improve the efficiency of business processes.
Most recently, Roambee’s technologies have supported the response to key global logistics problems, including global COVID-19 vaccine distribution, according to the press release.
“The pandemic has changed the dynamics of supply drastically, lengthening any recovery period. Our goal is to expand our platform’s capabilities to include more sensor and non-sensor data sources to eliminate disruptions and reduce risks in the supply chain,” Roambee Chairman and CEO Sanjay Sharma said in the statement.
Roambee says that its technology can assist in improving the number of sales from each distribution point (also known as product velocity), compressing the time taken from the order to the receipt of payments, and forecasting demand more accurately. Its clients include Mondelez, Lenovo, IFCO Packaging, ICICI Lombard Insurance, and the United Nations World Food Programme, among others.
Reefknot Investments and Temasek
Reefknot Investments is a global supply chain and logistics sector-focused venture capital fund headquartered in Singapore. The fund is backed by Temasek, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund. Temasek has also backed many important startups around Asia, including Kuaishou Technology, Zilingo, and BasisAI.
The investment into Roambee marks Reefknot’s third major global investment deal following its investment into AI-powered B2B financing platform Previse in April 2020, and AI decision-making company Secondmind in October 2019. According to Crunchbase data, Reefknot was the lead investor for both deals.
In 2020, according to the press statement, Roambee doubled its 2019 sales orders and onboarded new customers. Its technology was also used to monitor shipments of COVID-19 vaccines, data server products, and smartphones. It also found a new line of business through working with B2B insurers that use Roambee’s software to reduce their clients’ logistics risk.
The demand for logistics has increased with the expanding ecommerce industry, and the ongoing global pandemic has boosted the demand for medical goods and online shopping. Logistics and delivery services have played a crucial role in ensuring the continued availability of personal protective equipment (PPE) and other pandemic-related essentials.
Supply chain management is therefore crucial and highly sought after. Advanced technologies like AI, data analytics, and IoT have made supply chain operations – and the flow of product information across the supply chain network – much more efficient.
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